“An unabashed progressive dominates in New Jersey, another midterm warning sign for Republicans. Mejia, a former top Bernie Sanders staffer, convincingly won a House seat despite "radical" label.
Her convincing victory shows that the “radical” label had limited political consequence in such a polarized and charged environment, with anger at President Donald Trump fueling Democratic turnout. That could signal bigger electoral problems for Republicans in the midterms.
Mejia significantly overperformed Democratic 2024 margins in a wealthy, suburban and already Democratic district in NJ-11. She appears to have won the district by about 11 points more than Kamala Harris did, and about 5 points more than her predecessor, Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
She rejected the “radical” label and turned it on Republicans and ultra-wealthy titans of industry.
“I would say that the true radicals are Jeff Bezos, [Speaker] Mike Johnson, Palantir, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and even Joe Hathaway — radicals who are willing to upend our democracy, subvert our Constitution and act with impunity, and we must stop them,” Mejia said in her victory speech. “These radicals who clap for a president so perverse that he insults the God that he purports to uphold. These radicals will watch Rome burn with all of us within, and they are simply cowards — cowards unwilling to stand up to this madness. “
On the personal side of things, I've been out of a job since the end of last year due to federal cuts to the industry I had been working in. Today I accepted a job offer that will be taking me out of NH and into the Boston area sometime late next month.
Means my vote will unfortunately lose a lot of its impact. It will be mostly only valuable in primaries going forward. But I've wanted to be in the Boston area for a while now so this works out awesome for me on a personal level.
If Politico can admit it, maybe we all should too.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/17/mejia-new-jersey-elections-00878573
https://archive.ph/s4nBe
“An unabashed progressive dominates in New Jersey, another midterm warning sign for Republicans. Mejia, a former top Bernie Sanders staffer, convincingly won a House seat despite "radical" label.
Her convincing victory shows that the “radical” label had limited political consequence in such a polarized and charged environment, with anger at President Donald Trump fueling Democratic turnout. That could signal bigger electoral problems for Republicans in the midterms.
Mejia significantly overperformed Democratic 2024 margins in a wealthy, suburban and already Democratic district in NJ-11. She appears to have won the district by about 11 points more than Kamala Harris did, and about 5 points more than her predecessor, Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
She rejected the “radical” label and turned it on Republicans and ultra-wealthy titans of industry.
“I would say that the true radicals are Jeff Bezos, [Speaker] Mike Johnson, Palantir, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and even Joe Hathaway — radicals who are willing to upend our democracy, subvert our Constitution and act with impunity, and we must stop them,” Mejia said in her victory speech. “These radicals who clap for a president so perverse that he insults the God that he purports to uphold. These radicals will watch Rome burn with all of us within, and they are simply cowards — cowards unwilling to stand up to this madness. “
On the personal side of things, I've been out of a job since the end of last year due to federal cuts to the industry I had been working in. Today I accepted a job offer that will be taking me out of NH and into the Boston area sometime late next month.
Means my vote will unfortunately lose a lot of its impact. It will be mostly only valuable in primaries going forward. But I've wanted to be in the Boston area for a while now so this works out awesome for me on a personal level.